Last year, Facebook promised that the company was heading toward a future that focused on mobile, and it looks like that future is set to become reality this year. A number of new Facebook apps are tipped for release in 2014, and it’s strongly hinted they’ll be focused, standalone apps that unbundle some of Facebook’s core features.
Why Mobile First?
Facebook is a platform designed primarily for PCs, but TechCrunch reports that 2013 saw mobile revenues account for nearly half of the company’s earnings, and half of its logins were from a mobile device. Combine that with the rapid spike in mobile users from the same time last year (126 million in 2012 and 254 million in 2013), and they have a pretty convincing reason to put mobile first.
Why Standalone Apps?
Facebook’s tools and features are immensely popular, but many of these features don’t work as well for mobile as they do on desktop. This is why Facebook plans to release a suite of standalone apps that perform a targeted task, mimicking the on-point utility that Instagram and Facebook Messenger give to photo and messaging capabilities, respectively.
The key to this new direction in Facebook apps is the standalone nature they promise. Instagram and Messenger are under the Facebook umbrella, but have relatively separate identities from their parent company. This strategy will be an important factor in the success of any new Facebook app. The new apps must be known as a product of their own, not as a feature, in order to enjoy the same success as Instagram and Messenger.
What to Expect from New Facebook Apps
Also according to The Verge, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he wants Facebook to act as people’s “personalized newspaper,” and recent changes made to the site’s News Feed seem to reflect this, reflecting a greater emphasis on news articles. There is huge potential in this area for a news-centric Facebook app, but it doesn’t end there.
Facebook Events could easily be transformed into a standalone calendar app that bundles the best of Facebook Events, and links with other platforms like Google Calendar or popular calendar app Sunrise. Mobile search is another area in which Facebook apps could excel. Harnessing the power of friends’ Likes on Facebook can provide customized search results, such as being able to search for “coffee shops my friends like.”
This mobile first future for Facebook may see the social media giant become more fragmented, but this may not be a bad thing. Users aren’t looking for an all-in-one app for everything, they now want apps that focus and deliver one utility well.
What would you like to see in a Facebook app? Do you access the site more through your phone now?
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
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